Leap of faith!

After being driven crazy trying to stay ahead of adware, spyware, pop-ups, and other annoyances on my Dell computer, I'm making the switch to a Mac! I took a giant leap of faith and ordered a Powerbook G4 yesterday and can't wait to get it. Hopefully it will arrive this week. I talked at length with one of my friends who is a die-hard Mac user and he said he NEVER has to worry about whether or not his computer is going to work or not. What a relief that will be for me! You see, I'm going to be teaching an online course for doctoral students and I don't have time to have daily arguments with my computer!

Since I'm totally new to the Mac world, I'd welcome any and all tips for getting off to a good start with my PowerBook. I'd love to hear from other switchers like me!

I'm ready to fall in love with it! Please pardon my ignorance...what is a Kensington lock?

All Apple laptops (and most others) have a special connector that can accept a locking cable, to prevent theft. Kensington is the most well-known manufacturer of such devices. (Cloudane just had his laptop stolen )

Besides that, some setup tips:

1. Calibrate your battery by charging it completely, and then using the laptop on battery power until it goes to sleep. (Instructions will be in the manual.)

2. Use Software Update to download and install any OS or security updates. The Software Update command is in the Apple menu.

3. I'm sure whiteshark will be in shortly, to tell you about permissions repairs and cron jobs (MacJanitor.)

THE VERY FIRST TIME i touched a mac, was when i bought this beast!....and in 3 weeks i've been able to do it all! (well the only thing i havent done YET, is transfer my files located in my PC hard drive, and that's because i need to connect through ethernet and transfer the files......i still don't know how to do this.............but i know i'll somehow manage to do it!.........but in the mean time, i'm downloading music, surfing the web, listening to music, writing word documents etc. etc. with this beast!......and i've only had 3 weeks of OS X experience!

All Apple laptops (and most others) have a special connector that can accept a locking cable, to prevent theft. Kensington is the most well-known manufacturer of such devices. (Cloudane just had his laptop stolen )

Besides that, some setup tips:

1. Calibrate your battery by charging it completely, and then using the laptop on battery power until it goes to sleep. (Instructions will be in the manual.)

2. Use Software Update to download and install any OS or security updates. The Software Update command is in the Apple menu.

3. I'm sure whiteshark will be in shortly, to tell you about permissions repairs and cron jobs (MacJanitor.)

THE VERY FIRST TIME i touched a mac, was when i bought this beast!....and in 3 weeks i've been able to do it all! (well the only thing i havent done YET, is transfer my files located in my PC hard drive, and that's because i need to connect through ethernet and transfer the files......i still don't know how to do this.............but i know i'll somehow manage to do it!.........but in the mean time, i'm downloading music, surfing the web, listening to music, writing word documents etc. etc. with this beast!......and i've only had 3 weeks of OS X experience!

you'll do fine!

And do you happen to know the most efficient way to transfer files? I have some Word, .pdf, and photos to move into my new G4...

And do you happen to know the most efficient way to transfer files? I have some Word, .pdf, and photos to move into my new G4...

Thanks!

There are methods of doing this via a network or direct cable connection, but when I got my iBook, I just burned all of my old files onto a CD and then put it into the iBook to copy them over. Of course, if your old machine doesn't have a CD burner, that won't work.

By the way, although crons, repair permissions, and MacJanitor were all already mentioned, my one main suggestion for every new Mac owner is to download the free application OnyX. It makes maintaining your Mac extremely easy, and while there are ways to perform all of the actions manually without using OnyX, I think it's much easier (especially for new users) to have everything available in one interface with a few clicks of the mouse.

There are methods of doing this via a network or direct cable connection, but when I got my iBook, I just burned all of my old files onto a CD and then put it into the iBook to copy them over. Of course, if your old machine doesn't have a CD burner, that won't work.

By the way, although crons, repair permissions, and MacJanitor were all already mentioned, my one main suggestion for every new Mac owner is to download the free application OnyX. It makes maintaining your Mac extremely easy, and while there are ways to perform all of the actions manually without using OnyX, I think it's much easier (especially for new users) to have everything available in one interface with a few clicks of the mouse.

I'll DEFINITELY download OnyX--it looks fantastic! Perfect for a new user like me....thank you so much, Padawan!